–- Joseph Henry Blackburne (after drinking his opponent’s glass of whiskey during a simul)

But, J.H.Blackburne's games are still very much alive. Cheers!

Best Individual Performance: 2785 in Frankfurt, 1887, scoring 10/12 (83%) vs 2613-rated opposition

Source: Mike Hughes "Taken En Passant", "CHESS", May 2008

If we use the Wrexham ratio of 1 blindfold to 5 sighted simultaneous games, for 2,000 games a year he would earn about £10,000/$17,800 in today's value.

R.I.P. master Blackburne.

And let us not forget, Tarrasch was a doctor.

One of< Morphy's> most for-reaching accomplishments was that of inspiring Joseph Blackburne to take up chess. Blackburne had been impressed enough by the champion, that after Morphy's final visit to England in the Spring of 1859, Blackburne, then an 18 year-old laborer, took up chess. The following year Blackburne joined his local chess club in Manchester. Then the next year, 1861, he played, and lost 5-0, a match with the provincial champion, Edward Pindar (who had just won the Manchester tournament in 1861). Just three months after this devastating loss, Blackburne beat the champion in a match +5-1=2 (They also played another match which Blackburne won). During that monumental year, Blackburne was further impressed by the blindfold prowess of a nemesis of Morphy, Louis Paulsen. Blackburne was inspired to try blindfold chess himself. The next year Blackburne entered the London International tournament, winning 9th place, but beating Steinitz in the process. He lost his day job and took up chess professionally, possibly thinking chess to be an easier way to earn a living. If so, it would be ironic that Blackbune turned into one of the hardest working professional players of all time. When people discuss "natural players," those who seem to understand the intricacies of the game almost without effort, the names of Morphy and Capablanca, both privileged child prodigies, come up immediately.< But, having the disadvantage of not even learning chess until he was 18, Blackburnes own meteoric rise attests to his uncanny natural talent >which seems at the very least equal to that of either Morphy of Capablanca. When Blackburne died in 1924, he had been playing professional chess around 60 years.

Benzol: <ughaibu> asked on the thread of this game Kramnik vs Topalov, 2003 about a blindfold game where Blackburne announced a mate in sixteen moves.

"Blackburne's Chess Games" has the following position:

Blackburne - Scott

click for larger view

1.Rxe6+ Kh7
2.Qd3+ Rg6
3.Qxg6+ fxg6
4.Re7+ Kg8
5.Be6+ Kf8
6.Rf7+ Ke8
7.Nf6+ Kd8
8.Rd7+ Kc8
9.Rxa7+ Kb8
10.Nd7+ Kc8
11.Nc5+ Kd8
12.Rd7+ Kc8
13.Rf7+ Kd8
14.Nb7+ Ke8
15.Nxd6+ Kd8
and either 16.Rd7 or 16.Bb6 mates.

Really remarkable considering he was blindfolded. The game isn't in the DB and my book only has the game starting from the position above. It's a pity that the whole game doesn't seem to have survived. Blackburne was a truly great player.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

http://www.vanityfairprints.com/pag...

"Joseph Henry Blackburne, the English chess-player, was fined 5 pounds, with 3 guineas costs, at the Port Melbourne Police Court this morning, for having assaulted a fellow passenger on the 10th of December,on the voyage here."